Cammie McGovern is the author of the adult novels Neighborhood Watch, Eye Contact and The Art of Seeing. She was a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, and received the Nelson Algren Award in short fiction. She is one of the founders of Whole Children, a resource center that runs after-school classes and programs for children with special needs. Say What You Will is her first book for young adults.
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Blog: The Children's Book Review (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Ages 4-8, Ages 9-12, Book Lists, Cynthia Rylant, Adam Rex, Rebecca Stead, Eve Bunting, Mark Teague, Blue Sky Press, Ted Rand, Teens: Young Adults, Family Favorites, Best Kids Stories, HMH Books for Young Readers, Poppleton, Russell Erickson, Yearling Newbery Books, Add a tag
Blog: The Art of Children's Picture Books (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Jim Aylesworth, Ted Rand, Country Crossing, Add a tag
Blog: Playing by the book (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Night-time, Nature play, Ted Rand, Birds, Christmas, Animals, Families, Winter, Add a tag
With daytime temperatures in our neck of the woods barely making it above freezing this week, winter has surely arrived. We’ve had a flurry or two of snow, enough to get the kids excited but not enough for sledging… Of course, M and J are keeping their fingers crossed that all of that will soon change
With the drop in temparture, and the sharp frosts both heralding the start of winter and the beginning of the countdown to Christmas, this week we’ve been reading Night Tree by Eve Bunting and illustrated by Ted Rand – one of the books that inspired me to start Playing by the book, when I first read about it two years ago over on The Crafty Crow.
Night Tree tells the story of one family’s Christmas custom to venture into a small wood near their home every 24th of December to decorate a tree with food for the birds and animals. Told in the present tense (a decision which brings an immediacy and vitality to this story perfect for helping children to imagine they too are going alongside for the adventure in the dark – though do read this great article by Philip Pullman on the overuse of the present tense), this gentle story is perfect for reading snuggled up on the sofa with frost outside.
Ted Rand’s illustrations of the mysterious and magical nature of the trees at night bring just the slightest suggestion of suspense, essential for later creating a feeling of magic and awe, especially successful in the spread showing the the beauty of the tree laden with gifts for the animals of the wood.
I also like the fact that whilst this is most definitely a Christmas book it is not full of snow and the usual wintry scenes. It’s also a children’s book that people who don’t celebrate the religious aspect of Christmas can still enjoy and incorporate into whatever seasonal celebration they may be having (there is one mention of the carol “O Come all ye faithful” but that’s the full extent of any mention of faith).
M and J immediately wanted to play out the story exactly as it happens in the book – surely a strong recommendation for any book. Given that Christmas isn’t quite upon us yet we did the next best thing and decorated two trees in our garden ready for hungry visitors. There’s a great round up of bird treats to make here at The Crafty Crow. We decided upon dried fruit necklaces, popcorn and peanut chains, orange swings, and yoghurt pot bells.
Wow, what lucky birds! It sounds like a beautiful book, and I love your extension activity. When I read the description of the book, it reminded me of another that I read in the library recently – Owl Moon by Jan Yolen – http://www.amazon.com/Owl-Moon-Jane-Yolen/dp/0399214577.
Lovely Zoe – the girls, their hats and the decorated trees, and of course your creative ideas as always.
Is it cold here? Well Bangalore I must say has near perfect weather almost all through the year – lost of sun and just the right level of hot/cold. Prety much like San Francisco/Bay Area.
Been hearing of the snow from pals in London and watching it on the telly and remembering the odd days we had snow when we lived there. One time we put balls of snow in the freezer and then took them out in the middle of summer!
Hi Lynn,
Yes, Owl Moon is a good book to pair it with – we have that one too and Mathilde loves the idea of going owling. We’re fortunate in that a tawny owl lives in the trees opposite us. We’ve never seen it but we hear it often.
Hi Choxbox,
Although it is a palaver to get out of the house (even more than usual) because of all the extra layers, I’m determined to enjoy the cold snap. The girls are ridiculously excited about snow so I shall try to borrow a bit of their enthusiasm!
Yes, it’s warming up and summer is officially here. Our birds (peewees, magpies, currawongs, willie wagtails, wattle birds, galahs, rainbow lorikeets, eastern rosellas, a coel and a bower bird) are having a lovely time finding grubs and worms, sipping nectar from grevillias, and squawking, chirping or carolling loudly.
Do your girls know our satin bower bird? It is a very dark, midnight blue, and when it builds its bower, it likes to decorate it with blue things. So it will steal pegs, straws, toys, whatever it can find for its bower. The coel is also called the storm bird. It likes to sit outside our bedroom window and warn of impending rain at about 4.00 am by emitting shrill hoops in a constantly rising crescendo. For fun, it does it again, and then again. And again.